Google CEO on the new workplace: Check out the broads!
The New York Times got tons of quotes but little information out of Google CEO Eric Schmidt for a piece on the company's competition with Microsoft. So what's a fancy blog like the Times to do? Add to the empty verbiage by reprinting an equally gassy email from Schmidt on management. Here it is, helpfully boiled down to the almost nothing it was to begin with.
Information overload. Consequences: A) No falsehood can last. Everything is checked as you say it. B) People expect an immediate answer. I worry that the need leads to less thoughtful decisions. C) You can measure everything. Revenue, productivity, engineering. Every week our engineers post what they are working on. D) Managers need new ways to listen. Managers have been restrictors (of information) and access (to the boss). They need to become aggregators. E) Managers need strategies to obtain everyone else's information. I use the social graph. Even with that, how does the boss learn about a new idea?
The need for leadership, hope, vision, motivation are the same in every generation. The biggest difference in the workplace from 50 years ago is the presence of women.
